Emerging nanotechnology-based strategies for the identification of microbial pathogenesis

Abstract

Infectious diseases are still a major healthcare problem. From food intoxication and contaminated water, to hospital-acquired diseases and pandemics, infectious agents cause disease throughout the world. Despite advancements in pathogens’ identification, some of the gold-standard diagnostic methods have limitations, including laborious sample preparation, bulky instrumentation and slow data readout. In addition, new field-deployable diagnostic modalities are urgently needed in first responder and point of care applications. Apart from compact, these sensors must be sensitive, specific, robust and fast, in order to facilitate detection of the pathogen even in remote rural areas. Considering these characteristics, researchers have utilized innovative approaches by employing the unique properties of nanomaterials in order to achieve detection of infectious agents, even in complex media like blood. From gold nanoparticles and their plasmonic shifts to iron oxide nanoparticles and changes in magnetic properties, detection of pathogens, toxins, antigens and nucleic acids has been achieved with impressive detection thresholds. Additionally, as bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, nanotechnology has achieved the rapid determination of bacterial drug susceptibility and resistance using novel methods, such as amperometry and magnetic relaxation. Overall, these promising results hint to the adoption of nanotechnology-based diagnostics for the diagnosis of infectious diseases in diverse settings throughout the globe, preventing epidemics and safeguarding human and economic wellness.

Application of nanodiagnostics in point-of-care tests for infectious diseases

“…For the infectious diseases, the nanodiagnostic platforms have the ability to achieve reliable and rapid conclusions with simple and portable devices just by using blood, sputum, or urine samples from patients. 43 In addition, the sensitive nanodiagnostics platforms, with much potential to be robust, affordable, and reproducible, could be suitable for applications in the diagnosis of infectious diseases, particularly in resource-poor areas in the developing countries.…”

Biosensors in Antimicrobial Drug Discovery: Since Biology until Screening Platforms

“…Equally, nanomaterials have a promising impact in biosensors development by their broad possibilities in manufacturing for obtain electrochemical bioassays [128,129], as well as built nanostructures that detect a particular pathogen and determine if drug-resistant [130]. On the other hand, the combinations of biosensors with microfluidics technology have the capability of development of new AST methods at the point of care [131].…”

Detection: From Electrochemistry to Spectroscopy with Chromatographic Techniques, Recent Trends with Nanotechnology

“…The protection of the fluorophore by the polymer provides high stability under a range of conditions proving superior to organic dyes in terms of photostability and versatility [27].…”